Camera
As HTC has recently noted, the number of MP
is not everything - however, it is a greatly welcome feature as long as you
have firmware and components that are adequately stable to support it. We
believe that LG has done this with the 13MP rear camera on the G Pro, which has
an f/2.4 aperture, a 03/01/06- inch BSI sensor, EIS, 3.92mm focal length, AF
and LED flash. On the front, you can wait for a 2.1MP module with 4.6mm focal
length.
Before keep going into the performance, it
is necessary to remind that the G Pro has most of the changeable settings and
features that we prefer to use while shooting beautiful images. From the left
sidebar that can be customized, you are able to "fiddle" with
intelligent auto (which detects 27 modes), HDR, panorama, white balance, voice
shutter mode, ISO, senses and focus modes. We could not find a dedicated macro
mode, but most of the foreground images are fine on the normal modes, so we
will not talk too much about the absence of this feature.
The
13MP rear camera on the G Pro has an f/2.4 aperture, a 03/01/06- inch BSI
sensor, EIS, 3.92mm focal length, AF and LED flash.
Although the G Pro does not accompany with
a built-in shutter key, there are three other options that are willing to
replace it: the QButton and each side of the volume rocker. The only thing to
complain about this is that you are unable to press any of the keys to lock in
focus; one of the features LG has added into the Pro’s virtual shutter button.
(Looking feature in exposure still seems to be absent).
If we were to dissect the G Pro, we would
suppose that it was entirely possible to find the same camera module as the
original Optimus G. However, if we take a look at the results, it is obvious that
LG has been trying to work hard at the software side over the past few months.
Most images benefited from the fast autofocus and were extremely detailed; we
were impressed by how large we were able to zoom in on objects in which the
quality was not much downgraded or noise was increased. However, if we may find
faults (frankly, we have to find faults too much), many of the photos we took
looked a bit too cold mainly because the default auto white balance is in favor
of the blue.
We also had an impression on how much light
the G Pro was able to capture in a dark room and outdoors in low light areas -
and not only that, we were happily surprised that the images came with very
little noise. The LED flash worked well, providing our subjects with pretty
much light, but it was not so bright that it diluted all of the things.
The
G Pro’s camera offers a smart feature: dual-camera recording. It gives you the
power to make video from front-facing and rear-facing cameras simultaneously,
with the front camera is shown as a pop-up screen.
In addition to the normal panorama mode,
the G Pro has something that was so-called VR Panorama. Let’s think of Photo
Sphere for Android 4.2: you are able to shoot a series of photos in any
direction (and 360 degrees, if you prefer) and VR will join them together to
form a 3D-like image that just allows you to see much more than a simple photo
can capture. The finished product, it can pan around the whole panorama for you
or you are able to move the phone around and the image will move accordingly.
When the author tried to capture the images
of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, I quickly found out that no standard image
would be able to capture everything in just one shot; however, if joining
several images together, it becomes the totally different story. It's a great
feature in theory, but unfortunately it failed to perform its task too often -
stitching was apparent in nearly every attempt we made.
Basically, the camcorder function is
similar on both sides, which means you have 1080p video recording at 30fps.
However, the best news is that the experience is totally smooth with fewer
jerky movements, and the volume of detail that comes into each video is rather
complicated. The sound is very clear and loud, but the background noises came
into the final product more than we expected.
A
shot by the phone
Accompanying with new generations of
processors is all forms of new features and ideas to take advantage of the
additional horsepower, and the G Pro’s camera offers a smart feature:
dual-camera recording. It gives you the power to make video from front-facing
and rear-facing cameras simultaneously, with the front camera is shown as a
pop-up screen. You are able to move and resize the windows, and even change the
overall views so that the rear-facing viewpoint is in the foreground. This
might be handy if you want to interview someone and you want to record your
responses and the next questions on the video (think about the style of CNN).
Although this was the first implementation of feature, we were unable to find
any errors, delay or frame skips throughout the entire process. Everything was
also as smooth as any videos that were recorded normally, although it should be
noted that the maximum resolution is 720p.
Speaking of the fine software features that
reinforce your overall experience, the G Pro allows you to zoom in on videos as
they are being played back. This applies to all sorts of videos, whether or not
they are actually recorded on the device itself.
